Dedication

JERSEYVILLE — Luke Shively stood with a group of reporters. It was moments after his high school basketball career had ended just shy of a regional championship.

The sting of a 53-45 loss to rival Civic Memorial in the Jersey Class 3A Regional championship game was still visible, and it was a game the Panthers seniors will have a hard time forgetting knowing their prep careers ended at the hands of their rivals.

But for Shively, who scored the final points in the game that put him in an exclusive club, those in attendance likely didn’t know, unless it was family or friends that kept count, but a meaningless layup as far as the scoreboard was concerned put Shively right at the 1,000-point club. But unlike many who celebrate that particular milestone, Shively could only offer a small consolation grin.

“I just wish we would have won the regional,” Shively said after the Panthers finished 17-15. “It would have been a lot nicer to get the thousand and the regional. I’d probably take the regional over the thousand, but I guess I’ll take it.”

Shively has no choice. It was his final chance at 1,000 because the Panthers will not see the court again in the 2014-15 season. And the senior did it playing all 32 games with a herniated disk in his back that has been plaguing him for the better part of the past year.

“I don’t think anybody has any clue what kind of pain Luke’s in,” Jersey coach Stote Reeder said. “He can’t sleep at night. For him to give us all 32 games this year … I tried to sit him out in practice; he didn’t want to. ‘I feel good.’

“He told me the only way he’s not playing basketball is if he’s on the operating table. We spent all fall on him not playing and … he’s got a place in Panthers basketball history and so does Jake. Jake came just short. He got to like 970. What he went through this year, he’ll never admit how much pain he was in, but he was. Him and Jake are as tough as they come.”

And true to his word, Shively wouldn’t admit the pain he felt.

“No. It’s something I can deal with,” he said. “Hopefully, I can get through baseball season.”

And with that, Reeder was forced to say goodbye to seven seniors, including two that were the core part of the team (Shively and Varble) and five role players (Ethan Ward, Zach Rowling, Brendan Loellke, A.J. Staples and Collin Crawford).

“It’s hard to talk about them right now. I’m not ready to be done with them,” Reeder said. “Luke and Jake have been varsity players for four years. Luke got to a thousand and Jake darn near did. Jake’s the second-best rebounder in this school’s history and best offensive rebounder in this school’s history. They have just brought so much to this program; they have brought so much.

“I invited Kyle Steckel (who graduated in 2014) in to talk to the team Monday night. The one thing that stood out … all my alums, they feel like they’re still part of this program. It’s a family; it really is. Kyle was talking about how Jake signed a scholarship; he’s got his school paid for. He could have walked away from the family, but he didn’t. He dedicated himself to it. Words can’t describe what they meant to this program, and then you talk about the other five: Ethan and Zach, Colin, who didn’t play a lot. Every day, brought it. I’ve been saying it all year, they brought it every day knowing that they weren’t going to play a ton. And then Brendan and A.J. admitted they made a mistake quitting and they decided to come back. And they did the same thing. They brought it every day; just couldn’t be more proud of them. I hate that I don’t get to coach them anymore because I love em, I really do.”

Jersey’s season began with so much promise. The Panthers started 7-2 and 9-3 and there were realistic goals within reach. Perhaps a 20-win season, which would have been the first under Reeder in 10 seasons, a regional championship, which would have been Reeder’s third and a Mississippi Valley Conference championship.

But it all came falling down quickly. A home loss to Highland, the MVC champ, where Jersey led by 16 going into the fourth quarter and lost by eight in overtime seemed to be the beginning of the end. After a rough month of February, Jersey rebounded with a pair of regional wins. A third was needed, and necessary, and it never came.

“They played hard,” Shively said of CM. “They executed and did the right stuff. I’m sure they worked hard all season. We told the younger guys that this might have shown that they might have worked a little harder than us in the off-season, so they’ve got to work even harder in the off-season.

“All my success is probably from coach Reeder. He’s been pushing me since Day 1. Ever since I came in here, he’s been telling me I’ve got to keep working hard and obviously hard work paid off because I’ve had some pretty nice numbers.”

Despite a rough month of February, Reeder was proud of his kids for sticking together the way they did.

Leading scorer Zac Ridenhour will return for his senior season, as will junior Jacob Witt. Junior forward Drake Kanallakan will gain from his starting experience and sophomore Jacob Ridenhour will get a chance to step into a more prominent role.

“I was really proud of these kids no matter what,” Reeder said. “I’ve said it before, we were 1-6 in February and … some kids would give up, and they didn’t. Going into this week, I expected to be here this night, I expected to win (Friday), so did they. I think this team was good enough to win 20, it was good enough to win a regional. It just didn’t happen.”